AUSTIN — Rick Perry’s dismal showing in the presidential contest has plunged his approval among Texans to its lowest level in a decade, and more than half say in a new poll that he should not seek re-election as governor.

The poll by The Dallas Morning News shows that Perry now has a lower job approval rating in his home state than President Barack Obama, despite the GOP’s domination in Texas. Many also say that Perry damaged Texas’ image with his stumbles as a presidential candidate.

“It’s clear it’s hurt him,” said Mark Jones, political science department chairman at Rice University. “He’s been seen as a really savvy politician with an aura of invincibility, and all that’s been diminished.”

But he cautioned that a weakened Perry, with three years left in his term, is still a potent force.

“He’s still governor and still the most powerful politician in Texas,” Jones said.

A year ago, half of all adult Texans approved of the job Perry was doing as governor, even though 61 percent said they didn’t want him to run for president.

Perry entered the fray in August and quickly suffered a series of devastating, self-inflicted wounds, including misstating the voting age and — in the “oops” heard around the world — forgetting the third federal agency he would eliminate as president.

After soaring to the top tier of the Republican contest just after his announcement, Perry plunged to single digits and dropped out of the race last week in South Carolina.

Now home in Texas, Perry has some fences to mend, the poll shows.

His image has slipped, with 37 percent saying they have a less favorable view of him following the campaign, and 45 percent saying that his run has hurt the state’s image.

Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan said polls change, like the ones in 2009 that showed Perry trailing Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor, which he won the next year by a significant margin.

“Governor Perry remains strongly and conservatively at the helm of Texas state government and may well run for re-election in 2014,” Sullivan said.

He may well come back, but with his “disastrous run” for president, “he didn’t do himself any favors at home,” said pollster Mickey Blum, whose firm conducted the survey for a consortium of Texas newspapers.

“There is a real sense of lost confidence,” she said.

The poll shows 40 percent of Texans approve of the job Perry’s doing as governor — down 10 points from a year ago. He has lost ground among Republicans — from 73 to 60 percent over the past year — and also independents, from almost half to 27 percent.

Comparably, 43 percent of Texans currently approve of the job Obama is doing as president.

“Perry’s approval rating is now down there with the president. And that’s not a good thing,” Blum said.

Image of Texas

Perry ran for president as a quintessential Texan, bragging about the state’s job-creation record and conservative values. With his stumbles, many of those polled believe that Perry tarnished the Lone Star brand, with 45 percent saying the nation’s image of Texas is worse after his presidential run. Only 17 percent said it improved.

Joel Moore, a disabled Army veteran from Dallas, said he’s never been a big Perry fan, but now he’s even less so.

“His actions have made it look like people in Texas are absolute fools,” said Moore, a poll respondent. “I always thought he was foolish and then the more he talked, the more doubt he removed.”

The random telephone poll of 806 adults was conducted Saturday through Tuesday for The News, the Houston Chronicle, the Austin American-Statesman, the San Antonio Express-News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The margin of error is 3.5 percent, meaning the percentages could vary that much in either direction.

Sullivan said the presidential campaign highlighted the state’s strengths and made even more people look to Texas as a model.

“During the governor’s presidential campaign, he spoke proudly about Texas’ best-in-the-nation jobs record, his six balanced state budgets, and our state’s fiscal responsibility, all which reflect positively on Texas citizens, communities and employers,” Sullivan said.

Options are open

He left open the prospect of Perry making another run for president in 2016 if Obama wins a second term, in addition to possibly seeking an unprecedented fourth four-year term as governor.

Phil Chivers, a respondent to the poll, said he’s among those who voted for Perry two years ago and would do it again.

“I don’t know of any other candidates who could step in and do what he’s doing in Texas,” he said.

The Plano contractor said that Perry was ill-prepared for his presidential run and that he seemed to lose his confidence on the national stage.

“I deal with people from all over the U.S., and their responses after a few of his debates were just brutal,” Chivers said.

But with four years to study issues and greater knowledge, Perry could be a formidable presidential candidate, he said.

The poll showed that most Texans — 53 percent — do not want to see Perry seek another term as governor. Even some of his strongest supporters — 41 percent of Republicans and 35 percent of those who voted for him two years ago — don’t want him to run again.

Among the groups who don’t want another Perry run for governor are key voters: more than 60 percent of those 50 and older, 59 percent with incomes over $100,000 and 75 percent of those with advanced or professional college degrees.

“It’s the elite and influential telling you they would prefer to have someone else,” Jones said. He added, though, that on the heels of defeat, Perry is probably at his low watermark.

“It’s probably as bad as it’s going to get for him right now,” Jones said.

It’s two years until he would face another election — a lifetime in politics. Perry also controls all state agencies through his appointments, and the Legislature shares many of his philosophies, Jones said.

“In terms of running the state, he’s still in the strong position he was before, and with so much time left in his term, no one’s going to openly challenge him,” Jones said.

FULL POLL RESULTS

Full results of The Dallas Morning News’ poll show the governor was diminished by his run.

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Perry is doing as governor?

Approve: 40 percent

Disapprove: 40 percent

How has Perry’s run for the presidency affected Texas’ image?

Made it worse: 45 percent

Did not affect it: 34 percent

Made it better: 17 percent

How has Perry's run affected your view of him?

Unchanged: 48 percent

Less favorable: 37 percent

More favorable: 9 percent

Should Perry run for another term as governor in 2014?

No: 53 percent

Yes: 34 percent

SOURCE: Statewide survey Saturday-Tuesday of 806 adult Texans. Some undecided responses are not included. Margin of error is 3.5 percentage points, meaning results can vary by that much in either direction.

ABOUT THE POLL

Blum & Weprin Associates Inc. of New York conducted the random telephone survey Saturday through Tuesday of 806 adults, including 669 registered voters. Among adults, the poll has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, and among registered voters 3.8 percentage points. In 19 out of 20 cases, poll responses probably would differ by no more than that amount in either direction, even if all voters were interviewed.

An error margin of 3 percentage points means that each response could vary by 6 points. For instance, if 40 percent of voters chose a certain candidate, the result could range from 37 percent to 43 percent. Pollsters used both land lines and cellphones, and the overall results were weighted demographically and geographically to census data. Differences in how questions are worded or in what order they are asked can cause results to vary. Some undecided responses are not listed in these results.